


Different Types of Cages

by TheAsexualofSpades



Series: Quarantine Drabbles [24]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: AOS reference, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Retreat, can be platonic or romantic you choose, there's some angst implied but it's mostly just SHIELD shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-17
Updated: 2020-04-17
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:55:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23700430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAsexualofSpades/pseuds/TheAsexualofSpades
Summary: In the aftermath of the destruction of SHIELD, all of the files get dumped on the Internet. Of course Tony's gonna go through all of them, what kind of question is that?He finds a project Bruce worked on that Cap knows about too. There are some conversations that need to be had.
Relationships: Bruce Banner & Tony Stark, Steve Rogers & Tony Stark, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: Quarantine Drabbles [24]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1677655
Comments: 2
Kudos: 131





	Different Types of Cages

**Author's Note:**

> if you guys think I'm above using the TV show to give us the Steve and Tony relationship we should have had in the MCU you are WRONG
> 
> I am also willing to write the conversation that happens after this drabble takes place if y'all want

Fandom: Marvel (MCU)

Prompt: “Your hair is really soft after you wash it.”

* * *

Natasha dumped SHIELD’s files all over the internet and Tony Stark is about to have a _day and a half._

The second the files hit the daylight JARVIS has all of them filed and cataloged, Tony setting up for one of the long hauls in front of the holo screens with a drink and all the pretzels.

“Alright, JARVIS, let’s get started.”

It’s not pretty. It was never gonna be pretty. But Tony’s there, resolutely going over everything he can. DUM-E and U whine somewhere in the background. He reaches out blindly to stroke the tops of their little heads, grateful for their company.

Then he finds something tucked in a stupid little place that really shouldn’t piss him the _fuck_ off but it does.

“JARVIS, open that one. Gimme.”

“Decrypting file on the location: ‘The Retreat.’”

The file comes whizzing over, parking itself in front of Tony. He taps it.

“Now what was SHIELD doin’ with a nice little cabin out in the middle of nowhere?”

He freezes when he sees Bruce’s name in the first few lines.

“JARVIS, where is Dr. Banner?”

“Dr. Banner is in the R&D Lab on his floor.”

“Patch him through, would you?”

Another screen pops up, showing Bruce in his favorite yellow shirt amongst a mass of chemical tubes and far too many notebooks to be coherent. God, Tony loves him.

“Hey Tony,” Bruce calls without looking up, “what d’ya want?”

“So the entirety of SHIELD just got dumped on to the Internet,” Tony starts.

Bruce huffs. “How’d they manage that?”

“Nat.”

“Ah.”

“And, uh, I found your name on the ticket of a swanky little cabin.”

“The Retreat?”

“Uh-huh.” Tony watches Bruce set down his flasks and pull off his glasses. “Care to share?”

Bruce shrugs. “Containment.”

“Excuse me?”

“Needed a place to temporarily contain ‘gifted individuals,’ as they put it.” Bruce runs a hand absentmindedly over his arms. “In case we ever became dangerous.”

“You built a cage,” Tony says through gritted teeth.

Bruce shrugs. “Yeah. If anyone was gonna know how to contain something like the other guy it’s me.”

They’ve had this conversation before and Tony’s not about to try and have it again. An exchanged look is enough to convey it. Bruce nods once in thanks before returning to his flasks.

“Anyway, I only spent a little bit in there. If you really wanna know what it’s like you should ask Cap.”

Tony squints. “Cap? Why Cap?”

Bruce glances up over a bubbling test tube. “Have you read the rest of it?” Tony shakes his head. “You’ll see why.”

The window blinks out and the call ends.

Tony goes back to the file, head buzzing. Now that he knows what it was for, the whole text reeks of badly-covered-up-bullshit. Scrolling down the list of inhabitants, he freezes when he sees ‘Steve Rogers’ written in big, bold letters.

_Steve Rogers: 3/5/11 - 28/9/11_

_Subject confined to Retreat after defrosting for acclimation under surveillance. Damage repaired while the subject was unconscious/outside the cabin to prevent cross-contamination during the acclimation process. No security breaches._

Oh hell no.

So in non-SHIELD speak what that means to Tony is they imprisoned a freshly de-iced man who’d been asleep for 70 odd years in a place in the middle of nowhere, cut off from all human contact, purposefully kept him isolated from anyone, didn’t provide him an explanation for how the things he broke kept fixing themselves and kept him under 24/7 watch for almost five months.

What the _fuck,_ Fury.

“JARVIS, where is our man of action?”

“Captain Rogers is on the roof deck.”

Tony squints, looking out the window. “What time is it?”

“2:13 AM, sir.”

“Why is he not asleep?”

“I fear you do not have the authority to comment on Captain Rogers’ sleeping habits, sir.”

Tony snorts. As always, JARVIS is not wrong.

Tony is so glad Cap decided to come back to the Tower after all those shenanigans went down. Going up to the roof doesn’t give him nearly enough time to figure out what he’s gonna say or how to convey the biggest ‘fuck you’ to SHIELD retroactively but you know what, we’re gonna try.

The doors slide open and there he is, sitting with his back to the elevator, looking at the skyline.

Cap turns around when he hears the elevator, lifting a hand and waving to Tony before turning back around. Tony walks over, shifting his shirt to fight off the chill from the breeze. Cap’s just sitting there with a T-Shirt on. There’s water drying on the back of his shirt and his hair is a little damp.

When he gets closer, he sees the sketchbook in Cap’s lap, his pencil capturing the sweeps and curves of the skyline with a few quick, sure movements. Tony whistles.

“Damn. How long you been at it?”

Cap smiles at the compliment. “Don’t know. It was dark when I came up.”

“You know what time it is?”

“JARVIS?”

“2:15 AM, sirs.”

Cap turns his head, smiling cheekily up at Tony. “It’s 2:15.”

Tony smacks him lightly on the shoulder. “Mind if I pull up a seat?”

Cap motions to the deck chair next to him. Tony sits down, anxiously tapping his fingers against his knees. Now that he’s here he has no idea where to start.

“Tony?”

He glances over. Cap’s frowning at him.

“What’s wrong?”

“Should be asking you that, shouldn’t I?”

Cap smiles. “You can. Not sure how much of an answer I can give you.”

Tony doesn’t ask. He’s not about to try and open a can of worms he can’t deal with right now. “I, uh, was looking through the files Nat dumped.”

Cap’s smile fades but he nods.

“And, uh, I found something called ‘The Retreat.’” Tony watches Cap’s face for any signs of anger or anything but gets nothing. “Place you stayed at?”

Cap looks down, toying with his pencil. “SHIELD offered me a place to stay after I got out of the ice. I didn’t know that’s where they were gonna stick me.”

“Would you have said yes if you did?”

“I don’t know.” Cap looks up over the skyline. “Probably.”

Tony frowns, about to make some angry remark when Cap catches sight of his face and laughs.

“What? What’s funny?”

“You, Tony,” Cap says easily, “you’re all dark eyebrows and glares right now.”

“Am not.”

“Are too.”

“You can’t prove it.”

To respond, Cap just does what Tony’s guessing is supposed to be an imitation of his angry face which honestly ends up making the man look more than a little constipated.

“That’s better,” Cap says when Tony’s still laughing his ass off a few minutes later, “angry doesn’t suit you.”

“How are you _not_ angry?”

“What makes you think I’m not angry?”

And just like that, the atmosphere sobers. Cap sits up straight, suddenly the soldier again, and Tony feels himself drawing up to mirror the other’s posture.

“I don’t think SHIELD knows what to do with me,” he starts, “or _knew_ what to do. They’re gone. And now I don’t know—“

He cuts himself off. Tony leans forward, encouraging him to continue.

“…now I don’t know how much of what SHIELD’s told me was SHIELD and how much of it was HYDRA.”

Ah. Yeah. That is one hell of a kicker.

Tony’s not sure what he’s supposed to say so he just reaches out to pat Cap’s shoulder. Cap rests his hand over Tony’s and thanks him for being there.

“I should’ve been there before the whole thing went ass up.”

“No,” Cap corrects, “it wasn’t your problem.”

“They were putting my friends in cages in all but name, Cap, that’s my problem.”

“I don’t think we were friends yet,” comes the reply but there’s no heat. “Though I can’t say I wouldn’t’ve liked to see you and your lawyers go after them.”

“Nat been blabbing again about me?”

“What? No,” Cap shakes his head, “I found some footage of Senator Stern while we were searching for more HYDRA members to snag Sitwell.”

Ah, yes, the press conference. Tony watches Cap chuckle to himself, then starts full-on laughing.

“What?”

“God, it was great,” Cap says, throwing his hands up, “you just—you waltzed right out of there after making them show everyone the truth and, yeah, maybe you should’ve been a little less cocky in that closing statement but I was laughing for so long after I saw that. Stick it in their Nazi faces.”

Tony smirks, remembering the thunderstruck look on Hammer’s face as Rhodey desperately tried to hold in his own laughter. “It was fun.”

“You really are a show-off, sometimes, aren’t you?”

Tony reaches out to shove Cap’s shoulder but definitely miscalculates the man’s willingness to devolve into play fighting. They end up awkwardly sprawled across the deck, laughing when each of them tries to get up but the other pulls them back down. Tony can’t remember the last time he did this with someone. He reaches for some kind of handhold when his fingers brush something soft.

“Hey! No hair pulling, that’s cheating!”

“You are not one to talk,” Tony snipes back automatically before his brain catches up with what Cap just said.

He looks up to see that yep, his fingers are tangled in Cap’s hair.

_Your hair is really soft after you wash it, Cap._

They get themselves back to sitting properly in the deck chairs, Tony passing Cap the discarded sketchbook. As he makes the handoff, he notices there’s something…guilty in Cap’s eyes.

“Hey, your spangle’s gone somewhere,” he tries, “what’s eating you?”

“How much of the files have you looked through, Tony?”

Tony sobers at Cap’s serious tone. “Not all of them, why?”

Cap looks up and makes eye contact with him. “There’s…there’s something I should tell you about something you’ll find,”

“Okay,” Tony says.

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah. I trust you, Cap.”

“…okay.”

“Maybe not now, yeah?” Tony jerks his chin towards the glittering skyline. “Finish your drawing. Get some rest. We can talk later, okay?”

Cap nods. “Promise?”

“Promise.”

“Stay up here?” Cap smiles and that looks much better. “I could use the company.”

Tony brings out his phone, settling in for reading whatever rant Rhodey’s going on now. “I’m not going anywhere.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Come yell at me on tumblr while we're all in quarantine. 
> 
> https://a-small-batch-of-dragons.tumblr.com/


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